Program Summary

This project will develop a suitable solution to prevent rural children from suffering accidental injuries through a child-centred and community driven approach to safety awareness raising and training.

Why we are doing it?

Accidental injuries are the leading cause of death for children under fourteen in China: every year, more than 200,000 children (mostly between 1 and 4 years-old) are killed by accidental injuries (30 per cent of all children’s deaths) and 16.5 per cent of children suffer accidental injuries.  Most injuries happen to children at home (43.2 per cent), then at schools, kindergartens, streets, and roads. In one hospital survey that Plan China conducted, out of the 79 children hospitalised, 39 cases were related to accidental injuries and 3 were fatal.

School and community facilities are not built with consideration of children’s safety. Teachers do not receive sufficient training on school safety to allow them to deal with emergencies. Parents are not provided with support on how to prevent or reduce accidental injuries for children; the environment in rural communities is often a dangerous place and there are rarely any safety signs or preventative measures.

Our Approach

This project works with children under 18 years old, parents, kindergartens and schools to turn communities and schools into child safe environments. Plan China’s approach is to increase knowledge and capacity within communities on child safety and improve the safety of schools and communities to decrease the number of accidental injuries.  

Program Goals

·      Awareness raising and skill building in schools and communities

·      Build safe environments within schools and communities

·      Conduct research and disseminate results to the Ministry of Public Health

·      Develop a pilot intervention model that can be expanded into other areas

Program Activities

·      We develop school curriculum for kindergartens, schools, parents and peer-to-peer activities, which will increase awareness and knowledge on child safety amongst children, teachers and parents.

·      Plan China will support communities and schools to identify risks and improve school, home and community facilities to make them child safe.

·      Parents with children under 6 years-old will be the key target group, as these children are affected the most. However, the program will work with all children who live in the community as well as families and kindergartens. Parents and kindergarten teachers will be trained to give care to children to prevent them from suffering injuries and they will be trained on issues of anti-neglect.

Program Partners

·      Brio, the Swedish manufacturer of children’s toys. 

·      Anhui Medical University

Future of the Program

After this pilot we will expand the project by:

·      Working with the local health and education bureaus

·      Setting up local training teams to provide ongoing support

·      Providing a model for the government to utilise for further rolling-out the program

Impact

60 villages will take part in the pilot including 40 primary and middle schools and 20 kindergartens. More than 16,000 children will benefit from safer school environments and increased safety awareness.